Sandhills residents disputed the claim in objecting to the use by the shopping center of Kainani Street, the primary access road to their Wailuku community — although engineer Wayne Yoshioka said the plans for the road have been modified.

Residents voiced their concerns at a Maui Planning Commission meeting Tuesday on a phase 2 project district approval for the project. The commission deferred action pending completion of an environmental assessment that will include a review of the reconfiguration of Kainani Street.

The Maui Lani shopping center is planned on a 13-acre parcel along the Maui Lani Parkway and across Kaahumanu Avenue from Baldwin High School. The plans include a 55,000-square-foot Safeway store, 12 Safeway-owned fuel pumps, restaurants, a food court and retail shops. The shopping center will provide 128,000 square feet of commercial space and 673 parking stalls.

There will be two access driveways from Maui Lani Parkway. But the residents were focused on the access from Kainani Street, which is a main thoroughfare to the Sandhills neighborhood.

During the hearing, commissioners and residents were also concerned about 19 burials found at the site. An archaeologist on the development staff said a plan to preserve the burials in place is being developed, although some burials may be moved away from the parking lot and driveways.

In addressing Sandhills residents' concerns about traffic, traffic engineer Yoshioka said most drivers will access the center from Maui Lani Parkway, which connects to the Wailuku area and Kehalani project district through Waiinu Road.

"We will monitor the situation," he said.

Yoshioka, manager of transportation planning and traffic engineering at PB America, said the development group will work with the community to monitor the effects in traffic flows.

Working with county engineers, he said the development group has revised its plans for realigning Kainani Street. Instead of four lanes of traffic to the shopping center, there will be two lanes to exit the center with one lane from Kaahumanu Avenue.

The one entrance lane will require a left turn lane into the center access drive with a single through lane continuing to Sandhills. Vehicles turning left into the center will yield to traffic headed out on Kainani, Yoshioka said.

For drivers exiting the center or Sandhills, there will be two lanes out to Kaahumanu, one for going straight or turning left at the traffic signal, and the other to turn right onto Kaahumanu.

There will be stop signs for vehicles leaving from the center, Yoshioka said.

Yoshioka acknowledged that traffic could back up on Kainani from the stoplight at Kaahumanu Avenue. He said the state Department of Transportation has asked the consultants to monitor the situation and deal with problems that may occur.

The revised traffic pattern for Kainani Street will be reviewed by state highways engineers and incorporated into the environmental assessment.

Despite the assurances, Sandhills resident Zar Ogata said traffic will ultimately build up in her neighborhood and on Kainani. Even with the traffic signal at the intersection, she said it takes her 20 minutes to drop off her children at Baldwin High School.

"We can't get out of Kainani as easy as everyone thinks we can," she said.

"More traffic into that area will make it more dangerous for the people who live there now. It's a Maui Lani project, it should stay on Maui Lani property."

Another area resident, Lisa Giamoyris, disagreed with Yoshioka's contention that most of the traffic will remain on Maui Lani Parkway.

"Not everyone is going to go through the front entrance at Maui Lani Parkway. . . . Speed humps or whatever. They will still come," she said.

Giamoyris added that the roads were developed when there were few vehicles on Maui and are not designed for heavy traffic. The roads are narrow, with no sidewalks and with utility poles and stone walls lining the roadsides.

She suggested that Kainani could only be used as an exit, to discourage drive-through traffic in Sandhills.

Commission Co-Chairman Wayne Hedani and Commissioner Kent Hiranaga asked a representative for Safeway, PM Realty Group's Wendell Brooks III, if the Kainani access was needed.

"It's above my head to say it's OK," Brooks said.

But the developer's representative, consultant Lloyd Sueda said he would take back concerns from the meeting to the Weinberg Foundation.

Residents and commissioners also seemed taken aback when the developer's archaeologist, Lisa Hazuka, said 19 burials had been found on the property.

Hazuka said 14 to 15 will be preserved in place. Others will need to be relocated. She added that those preserved in place will be under protected medians and fencing.

Hinano Rodrigues, a specialist with the State Historic Preservation Division, testified that final plans have not been approved or recommended and it is premature to say what exactly will be done. There is a treatment plan for several of the burials, he said.

County planner Ann Cua said a letter from the preservation division in 2005, indicated that no historic properties will be affected as long as conditions of burial treatment plans and monitoring plans are followed.

But Rodrigues said the staffer who prepared the letter is no longer with the department.

Contacted via phone after the meeting, Kahu Charles K. Maxwell Sr., chairman of the Maui/Lanai Islands Burial Council, said the panel is aware of the burials on the site and has recommended the burials be preserved in place, although remains found already scattered could be placed with other preserved burials.

Sandhills resident Clare Apana said she wasn't aware of the additional burials found on the site and noted that she only saw a few on previous reports.

"What is going on?" she asked. "Please, please go with a fine tooth comb and make this project pono."

Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.